Illustrated is "Altpreussische Uniformen" by Hans Bleckwenn. This book is a nice little snapshot of the Frederician Army. It's not complete, but has a smattering of different regiments of each troop type. Each is illustrated with a colour plate depicting the basics of the Privates, the NCOs, the Officers and the Musicians uniforms as well as numerous small details like their colours and standards.I had quite forgotten that I had ordered this book via the Internet until it arrived in my letter box. On examining it, I was so taken by the plate for von Reuschs' Hussar Regiment number 5 that I had to try painting some figures up as this regiment.
The figures are RSMs, on one of the galloping horse variants. I used the the Prussian Hussar in Mirliton for the troopers with an Austrian Hussar as the Busby-wearing Officer.
They are quite nice figures, but can be a little tricky to paint on account of the fine-ness of the detail. Try a beer instead of a coffee while you are painting these boys.
Painting was done from a black undercoat with a pretty liberal amount of mid-gray highlighting. It took me the best part of a week to get them done. The "dagging" on the saddle-cloths was done by painting the whole pattern in white and then going over again in red - this let me leave a fine white border while also brightening up the red.
12 comments:
Excellent!
Book sounds pretty cool, too.
It's a nice little find - I think I got it through bookfinder.com for only a few euro.
It's an old library copy, with the usual stamps and so on. Nice touch; it's about the size of a postcard, so it's very easy to keep on my person. Perfect for those train trips with nothing better to do!
Cheers,
Greg
Greg,
Welcome back, sir! We have missed you.
The hussars look wonderful (as always) . . . but my favorite hussar that you've painted is still the "Volontaires de Saint-Victor" from your January 24, 2006 post. I really like his looks.
Here is a "tiny" URL to save people the difficulty in looking it up:
http://tinyurl.com/2r8o3f
-- Jeff
Greg,
Very nice paint job. How do you manage to paint so many in a week? I am in awe.
Ian
Lovely job. What did you use for attaching the riders to horses? I've got a dozen of the Hussar with Busby waiting for me to get gutsy enough to attempt their paint job after I paint some of the others.
Nice figures! :-)
That book is a boiled-down version of the full 4-volume Bleckwenn, which does have just about everything you would need to know about Frederician uniforms of the mid-18th century in the same handy format. I managed to get the whole thing for about £25 ($50) last year (including postage) via Abe Books. Well worth acquiring!
David.
I remember that Hussar! I was experimenting at the time with French Light troops and I was trying to see who had the snazziest uniform. I'll do more once HR 5 is done.
Ian, I have no idea - I'd been on a painting hiatus for a week or two before and then just knuckled down and did half an hour before and after work. My painting table is more-or-less permanently set up in front of the television and whenever we are watching, I am painting.
SC - with superglue. I thinl a better solution would be to get a little doughnut of greenstuff and lay it on top of the horse and use it to secure the rider. That lets him be more securely attached. I don't really like superglue.
David, you are convincing me! Abe books here I come!
All the best - Greg
The four-volume complete work is entitled Die friderizianischen Uniformen 1753-1786 and covers all of the units of that period. Only mine cost $120 Canadian (about US$90) about 6 years ago.
8=^(
andygamer
Hi Greg (and Andygamer),
I checked on Abe Books yesterday and the cheapest I could find for the Bleckwenn was about $80 plus postage so I must have been very lucky last year to get them for around $50 inclusive. Sorry about that!
David.
Ouch!
GH
;^)
But a search through this bookshop portal for "Hans Bleckwenn" produces some much more reasonable prices: http://www.onlinebooksellersdirect.co.uk/
Try it! :-)
David.
I bought my Bleckwenn set new about 10 years ago, and even then it was around $90 to $100. It is well worth the price.
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